Soul Eater

[RedRadio]

SOUL EATER

Well, what can I say, really? This anime has it all. An academy. Souls. People that eat said souls. Dysfunctional characters. Dysfunctional relationships. Blood. Fanservice. Catgirls. Scythes. Death. Aggressive attitudes. And of course, Excalibur.

Story

Compared to other anime I've seen in recent 2008/2009 anime, Soul Eater provides us with the story that is "incredibly" unique. Reason why I put quotes on incredibly is due to the fact I don't want to exaggerate myself. The main plotline is basically centered upon the story of Maka and her weapon partner, Soul Eater at the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Also, along the way is Death The Kid, and Black Star: two other meisters of the DWMA.

Oh, and did I mention that this story takes place in Death City, a fictional city in, of all place, Nevada? Yeah. Wow.

Well, thankfully, this story doesn't suffer from cliche Japanese plotline. And it's hard to believe anyone in their right mind would want to set an anime in the USA. But, you know, it happens. And thank God for that.

Is there anything wrong with this story? The story is actually quite long. Unfortunately for the anime, they only had 51 episodes, when the manga runs longer than that. Other than that, I've got no problem.

Characters

Oh boy, the characters. If you have watched Soul Eater, then you'll know why I love this category.

Pretty much every character in this series is basically the main definition of either a badass, a flat out aggressor, a fanservice character (BLAIR), or a comic relief character.

I mean, come on, even Chrona is a badass and she's so tiny. Guess size really doesn't matter in terms of anime. But anyways, I had a lot of fun with the character development of this series. The good thing about this is, that with two seasons, they were given plenty of time to develop, which they achieved remarkably.

Unfortunately, though, it suffers from a case I like to call, The Bleach Factor. One thing that bothered me about this anime, is that it had so many characters, that not only did you have a lot of characters to choose from, but also it took a while to concentrate on the story when you were focusing on the sheer amount of characters filling your computer screen.

Let's see here. Soul Eater is basically a punk, which I love. Maka is aggressive and knows her stuff, good addition. Tsubaki is the big breasted, innocent girl of the group, and isn't cliche for once. Black Star is basically indescribably when it comes to awesome. Death The Kid is just ... wow. And his weapons Patti and Liz are guns. Hell yeah. We've got a good series here.

Animation

This section might be a little short, due to the fact that the entire animation of this anime is what it lives up to. What do you mean, Skyler? I mean that Bones did an amazing job, as always. With a past of producing/making anime such as Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop, and Darker Than Black, it's safe to say that the series lives up to amazing animation, and intense visuals.

Thankfully, every episode has precise detail and even sometimes, makes you drop your chin at how simple some scenes are, but how great it looks in the end. The animation is very clean, and runs smoothly, that it does. And as expected from Bones, it looks simple, but then again, it doesn't. Perfect combination, in my opinion.

However, if you may have noticed, the anime uses excessive amounts of brown and black, which irritates the eyes a little when the animation starts rolling. For instance, when the animation zooms out to get a full view of the character, or when they are running from an enemy, the brown and black in the scene will get eye-bleeding irritating.

Music

As you could expect from Taku Iwasaki (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Black Cat), the soundtrack for this anime is just breathtaking. From dramatic, Higurashi-esque music, to the jazzy beats that resonance (that was meant to be a TMR joke) Cowboy Bebop nostalgia, the entire soundtrack just makes me giggle every time I repeat the songs over and over again.

And that is something rare, seeing how any song could get annoying after a while. But when listening to this OST, I just can't get enough of the power that Taku Iwasaki composed for Soul Eater.

Of course, what about the opening and closing themes?

With Soul Eater, T.M. Revolution made a "sort of" comeback, seeing how Takanori Nishikawa works with Abingdon Boys School, which also made the fourth and final closing song for Soul Eater. Both songs "Strength" and "Resonance" are just exactly my kind of music. With the beats of synthpop mixed with the vocals of J-pop, both songs deliver amazing sound.

And of course, who doesn't love the song "Papermoon" by Tommy heavenly? Being this song is the main attraction to most people to Soul Eater (yeah, it happened), and not only that, but this song is, unfortunately, everywhere on YouTube and NND. Yet, still despite all of that, Papermoon has the mix of punk-rock guitar, along with the beautiful vocals of upbeat j-pop.

Unfortunately, though, "I Wanna Be" by Stance Punks didn't exactly live up to my punk music needs when I heard it for the first time. It'll take a while to get used to the song when you realize that the anime's premise and the song don't exactly match very well. If you get what I mean.

"Bakusou Yume Uta" was iffy for me. Very catchy, indeed. But then again, I can't take Soul'd Out seriously.

Final Verdict

Watch the anime, read the manga. This is a high recommendation to any anime fan who loves to witness of intense, detailed action scenes, and a developing story that doesn't make you want to stab your eyes out. Big example of these animes that make me want to stab my eyes out? Mermaid Melody.

Anywho, I don't want to say watch it right now, but I really do think you should take your time with this anime, if you can. But the back of my mind is telling me to tell you that you should just watch it now and get it over with. Because FuniMation isn't coming out with Soul Eater until early 2010, so, we have to wait a while for any English dubs.

Hope you enjoy your Soul Eater! 'Till next time.

[chup1n]

nice review, I´ve just finished SE^^

[denda2004]

very nice review, i watched it when the sub came out last ep could of been better but was still enjoyable :)